An Open Letter to the NFL

by Anonymous10/15/17The following was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook who said he had the author’s permission to spread this about. • You graduated high school in 2011. Teen years were a struggle. You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Your mom was leader of the family & worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head & food on your plate. Academics were a struggle for you – your grades were mediocre at best. The only way you stood out – you weighed 225 lbs & could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds carrying a football!

Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t play football. Instead of going to football practice after school, he worked at McDonald’s for minimum wage.

You were recruited by big colleges & spent every weekend of your senior year making visits to universities. Coaches & boosters tried to convince you their school was best. They laid out the red carpet for you.

Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D’s. College, not an option for him. The day you signed with State University, your best friend signed papers with his Army recruiter. You went to summer workouts. He went to basic training.

You spent the next 4 years living in the athletic dorm, eating at the training table. You spent Saturdays on the football field, cheered by adoring fans. Tutors took care of every academic need. You attended class if you felt like it. Sure, you worked hard lifting weights, running sprints, studying plays, & soon became one of the top players in the country.

Your best friend was assigned to the 101st Airborne. While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once & Afghanistan twice. He became Sergeant & led a squad of 19 year old soldiers who grew up just like he did. He shed his blood in Afghanistan & watched young American’s give their lives, limbs, & innocence for the USA.

You went to the NFL combine & scored off the charts. You hired an agent & waited for draft day. You were a 1st round draft pick & your agent immediately went to work, ensuring you received the most money possible. You signed for $16 million but had never played a single down of pro football.

Your best friend re-enlisted for 4 more years. As a combat tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.

You drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Beach. He rides in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat soldiers.
You sleep at the Ritz. He digs a hole in the ground & sleeps if he can.

You “make it rain” in the club. He prays for rain as temperatures reach 120°.

Sunday, you run into a stadium as thousands of fans cheer & yell your name.

Your best friend knows little difference between Sunday & any other day. There are no adoring fans, only people trying to kill him & his soldiers. Every now & then, he & his soldiers leave the front & “go to the rear” to rest. He may be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV.

Then when the National Anthem plays he sees you dishonor your best friend by taking a knee, but he jumps to his feet & salutes the TV.

You protest ‘unfairness’ of life in the United States, he gives thanks to God because he has the honor of defending his great country.

To the players of the NFL: We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, & wear your jerseys. We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you & marvel at your athleticism. We love to watch you play, but we care little about your opinions until you offend us. You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you.

We have tolerated your drug use, DUIs, domestic violence & your vulgar displays of wealth. We are ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right.

You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country.

National boycott The NFL Sunday November 12th, Veterans Day Weekend.

Boycott all NFL football telecasts. All fans, all ticket holders, stay away from attending or watching any games on TV. Let them play to empty stadiums. Let their corporate sponsors get hit in the wallet.

Honor our military, many who come home with the American Flag draped over their coffin.

About Brad Nelson

I like books, nature, politics, old movies, Ronald Reagan (you get sort of a three-fer with that one), and the founding ideals of this country. We are the Shining City on the Hill — or ought to be. However, our land has been poisoned by Utopian aspirations and feel-good bromides. Both have replaced wisdom and facts.

66 Responses to An Open Letter to the NFL

I haven’t read if the NFL’s ratings/attendance are still significantly down for this week. Let’s hope so. I did read that Aaron Rogers is out for the season. That’s as far as the NFL penetrated my skull this weekend. I hope the league withers on the vine. It won’t. But I can dream, can’t I?

After20 years in the service the best friend will retire as an E-8. He will have some form of PTSD and suffer from the physical and mental traumas he has endured, however, his wife and three children will know that his pain is the result of dedication to an everlasting ideal of freedom and individual responsibility. He is well known in the community as a loyal friend and husband and father. When he passes on the community morns.

The NFL player will make 20 million dollars during his short career of 8 years, 20-30% of which he pays his agent and another 30-30% is paid to lawyers keeping him out of jail. The balance is spend on “life style” and when the paychecks run out so does the life style. He is now selling used cars in Barstow CA, where is name and a poster are the only reminders of his NFL career. When he dies from a drug overdose, a few people say, “didn’t he used to play football?”. Five people attend the funeral.

I really have heard that a lot of these black players, who have little or no background in handling responsibility, can blow through the money very fast.

I always thought that if I won the lottery, 90% of it would be safely invested and 10% would be used to buy some toys. But most of it would not be squandered. What do I need with 5 cars or an Island in the Caribbean?

I think yours truly will be obnoxious on this issue. I plan on posting some schtick every week on Facebook just to sort of remind all those people who were all hot-and-bothered when this issue broke out that the nature of the beast has not changed. And if you want to watch football there are plenty of good college games on Saturday. And there is plenty of other fun stuff to do rather than give your time to this rotten beast on Sunday.

Well Brad, I have to ask, what’s wrong with a Caribbean Island? If you would not want to be bothered with the up keep, I will volunteer to take care of it for free. So if you do win a giant lottery prize, you can put that one back on the list.

Noted. The day I buy a Caribbean Island, you will be appointed Governor General. But I would imagine that taking care of a tropical island is more work than you might think. Think about having to pick up all those coconuts after a tropical storm. And the beach must be combed regularly. Sharks must be culled. The greeter-girls must be oiled. You must unfold all the umbrellas for the tropical drinks. And don’t forget having to organize all those lawn bowling tournaments. Be careful before you volunteer.

“But I would imagine that taking care of a tropical island is more work than you might think.”

Because I know and practice the discipline of sitting quietly, I volunteer to provide shark surveillance. In addition, I could provide quality control for the many uses of coconut meat and milk. I can effectively and efficiently perform both tasks at the same time. I am available immediately. Attached is my application.

As Governor General I accept your application Gibblet. Now that The Island of Brad has employees, I suppose we will have to impose a tax on Brad to pay for our lavish life style, of coarse we will not be receiving any pay, but the servants we need, will want to be paid, and the cost of all the fine cuisine, well, that goes without saying. Memo to Brad, better win two big lottos.

We want to be sure Timothy. Gibblet, our families, friends and I will eat a lot of Maine lobster. (actually I prefer spiny lobsters, but they are plentiful in the Caribbean, and since Brad will be paying, why scrimp, the sky’s the limit.)

Funny you should mention that, Pat. The income tax rate is 0% on The Island, although we are extremely picky about who we let in. Illegal aliens need not apply unless they can provide a valuable skill such as knowing how to say “A plane..a plane!” in just the right way.

Operating income comes from the privateer fleet admiraled by Mr. Kung. (See his eye patch?) We prey mainly on the Cuban navy, such as it is, with a Princess Cruise ship thrown in every once in a while. We take a few princesses as well.

Aaarrgg me hearties! Besides the Cuban navy from which we will commandeer only cigars, rum and ferro-nickel (the last is a metal trader joke)
we will principally prey on the private yachts of leftist multi-millionaires and billionaires who will be more than happy to fund our political experiment.

I advise against too harsh a policy regarding the Princess Line, as some of us moonlight in their theaters or at the various ports-o-call they put in to. Tourists love to see Long John Silver and Blackbeard lookalikes and the cruise companies pay in good pieces of eight.

And the NFL will be forbidden on The Island. (As will soccer, a bore of a sport to watch.) But other than that, liberty will pretty much rein. Topless beaches on the north shore in Ginger Harbor. A regular beach to the south in Mary Ann Cove. And we’ll have a murder every other month (real or staged) at the Grand Hotel and invite in all the top detectives.

Let us make sure the island has a large reef around it, and we cut a path through it, so that only Admiral Zu knows the way through. Then we can install a light house in the proper location to bring in leftist ships in during storms or Trump sightings, to crash on the reef. Then we go out and plunder their ship and take the booty, (that one is for you Brad).
And finally Timothy, yes there will have to be plenty of jumbo shrimp and great Boston Clam Chowder. And maybe some fine Mexican food, Prime Rib, and the best steaks from time to time, made with prime beef of coarse. And yes, NO NFL ever. Unless NFL stand for Naked Female Liaisons.

Fine Mexican food, eh? I can think of a lot of good options, including chile rellenos, chimichangas, cheese crisps, and sopapillas with honey. And that’s not to mention the more regular options. And good beef is always good to have — but especially prime rib. Some Southern fried chicken would not be amiss, either.

Let us make sure the island has a large reef around it, and we cut a path through it, so that only Admiral Zu knows the way through.

Admiral Zu? Is that from “The Mysterious Island” by Jules Verne? The Dinotopia novels by Alan Dean Foster also had (if I remember correctly) the “impassable reef” as a plot point. By the way, I recommend both of Foster’s Dinotopia books for some nice, light reading. I think Dinotopia Lost is the first book in the series. The synopsis is “For countless centuries, the Land Apart from Time has been protected from intruders by the coral reefs surrounding the island.”

I do believe there is nothing like a labyrinthian coral reef to keep the riffraff out, Pat. Good idea. And sort of like Commissioner Gordon’s Bat-Signal searchlight, we’ll rig up the light in the lighthouse so the letters “MAGA” show clearly, although by doing so we might inadvertently bring up more Trump supporters than detractors onto the rocks. Whether this is a feature or a bug, we’ll figure that out later.

I hate to let my xenophobic side show too much, but I could do without the Mexican food on the island. And, no, no one will ever have to press “1” for English on The Island’s phone system. I’d prefer a good Chinese (Taiwan, not Commie) restaurant as a replacement.

And I was thinking more of USFL, Pat. (Ununiformed Sheilas From Liechtenstein…just trying to find a place where Rick Steves hasn’t been yet).

I like where you are going with this Timothy!
Should that be Admiral Fu Zu, or Admiral Kung instead? If we can project a hologram of Trump on the water in front of the reef; the leftist will go to ramming speed to take him out, there by completely destroying their boat. That might be OK if the booty is not damaged. I do not see many of the Trump-a-Loompas going into the reef, but if they are worshiping him so much that they crash, well, so be it. Sucks to be them.
So are you saying we cannot have Mexican food Brad? You know me, I am a picky eater, I will only eat something if it is food. So I am just fine with Free Range, (or free market), Chinese food.
I have been to Liechtenstein, and the Sheila’s I saw there would do nicely.

Liechtenstein got mentioned once in an episode of Get Smart set on the Orient Express. Johnny Carson had a bit part as a conductor who comes in to check their passports, saying “Now entering Liechtenstein.” A minute later he came back, saying “Now leaving Liechtenstein.” When Max asked what took so long, he answered, “Floods. They had to evacuate the country.”

I suspect correct Chinese usage would be Admiral Kung, just as Mao Zedong was Chairman Mao.

If we can project a hologram of Trump on the water in front of the reef; the leftist will go to ramming speed to take him out,

That’s as fine a use of a hologram that I’ve heard.

Yes, Pat. You can have Mexican food. But the restaurant establishment that will be licensed to serve it will require to to climb a twelve foot wall, coming and going. You must do the restaurant-eating that normal Islanders won’t do.

Here’s the daily activity community schedule on the Island listed with specific events. What you do in between times is your schedule.

1) 8:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.: Get on Facebook and heckle the NFL and those who continue to bolster their anti-Americanism.

Well with all this talk of the Caribbean, Sandy and I will just go ahead and go. We’ll leave tomorrow and will be gone for almost three weeks. I will be sure to have some turtle steak and mulligatawny soup while we sit on the veranda and watch the sun go down. I promise to keep an eye out for the best island for you Brad.
I’m thinking of Anegada in the BVI, it has the reef for Admiral Kung and the location is appropriate to draw leftist’s ships in, that get lost on their way back from France. And we are not too far out of the way for a good supply of fine foods for the food czar Timothy and not too many sharks for the ever vigilant Gibblet the shark whisperer. And for our owner Brad, he will have plenty of choices of security force members to choose from, from either the Amazon or the coeds of Florida.
We take on this burden as our duty as the first couple of The isle of Brad, it will be tough, but we will try to endure. Have a happy British Surrender Day!

Thank you, Pat and Sandy, for sacrificing your time for this important research. If you are able, please test all fruits that drop from trees for their compatibility with shark steak and alligator ribs. It would be ideal if you could bring back actual specimens, but photographs accompanied by a brief report would still be appreciated. Godspeed!

I can think of some tropical fruits I’d like to try, and they probably do mostly fall from the tree (and, realistically — though this sequence isn’t about realism, admittedly — need to be picked up before they rot). Note that mangos consist mostly of a single very large seed.

I sent Pat a fat check so that the could make a down-payment on any favorable islands that he finds. Diverse and abundant vegetation is one of the requirements. We want “tropical island” not “desert island.” But we can certainly import some of our own fruit. We just have to check first and make sure that it’s not a brand that advertises during NFL games.

Over the last two days Goodell has huddled with NFL team owners and the Players Association. Speaking to the press about how he intends to salvage the season, Goodell came up incomplete. As he fumbled for words, a very odd verbal tic emerged. Over the course of about 20 minutes before the press, Goodell used the same two words no fewer than 45 times.

Those words were “issues” and “communities.” Apparently over and over and over again. Men can indeed learn to speak and think like women….at least PC women. Just hit all the emotional words.

Meanwhile, Goodell is looking to play King Solomon with the anthem protest issue – except he actually wants to go through with cutting the baby in half, acknowledging the legitimacy of the players’ protests while telling the fans he’s really on their side.

A lot of words have spilled over from this disingenuous protest. One American Thinker commenter is as succinct as can be:

They simply don’t want to be punished for committing crimes. It’s that simple!

It is indeed that simple. This is about black separatism…with more than a tinge of racism against whites. It’s about not accepting normal civilized standards under the guise that some black guy somewhere was shot by a white cop. They reject our country. We should reject them. We certainly shouldn’t pay for the privilege of the disintegration of our country and decent standards.

Another commenter writes:

The NFL players actions have zero impact on the “issues” that this Goddell guy worked so hard to avoid mentioning. Societal pathology is not changed by abstract group-think performance on Sunday afternoon. Never once in the NFL “protest” has the root cause of the problem, 72% out of wedlock births in the black community and the resulting poverty, ever been mentioned.

In addition to the black racism involved, it is also a case of defining deviancy down as Moynihan pointed out about 50 years ago.

And by the way, poverty is not an automatic trigger for all the problems facing the black community. Sexual immorality, children raising children, lack of discipline, no father figure, absent parent(s), neglect, etc, etc, etc, are probably just as important in contributing to the lawlessness run rampant in the inner-city as poverty.

In the first half of the 20th century poverty among Black families, while higher than Whites, was going down at about the same rate as the decrease in White communities. Illegitimate births again were higher but at a manageable level and the children were adopted at approximately the same rates as whites, in to two parent homes. Crime, also higher, but going down was a solvable problem. The same was true for the other social institutions of church and school–not up to the same levels as white communities but steadily improving. So, what happened?

Big nanny government in the form of democrat LBJ and the belief that problems can be solved by throwing money at it (The same solution as in Vietnam). The big nanny government stepped in and told poor families, black and white that by giving up their liberty for a secure place on the democrat vote ranch all would be wonderful.

We know how that is working in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore New York, and all the other democrat controlled cities.

That is eyes-wide-open clear-minded thinking, Steve. This is perhaps the central divide. Is help “help” or is it harm?

Government “help” is so obviously like a harmful drug. Catholics, in particular, have been useful idiots in this regard ignoring this and euphemizing with the term “social justice.”

In a perfect world we help our neighbor making sure that our help does not go to undermine their own spirit of doing what one should do for oneself. In an imperfect world, we perhaps trickle out some carefully shaped and specified government aid to help those in dire need and doing the best we can to avoid abuse and fraud.

In the world we actually live in, government officials are like pimps and pushers, preying on entire groups of people and telling all the world how damn compassionate they are while building Detroit after Detroit. This is monstrous.

In the early years of Hull House Jane Addams secured funding from public donations and wealthy businessmen in Chicago. While not successful with every person or family Hull House set a standard for independent charities across the nation and hundreds of copies in major cities across the nation. Then government stepped in, offering grants, expertise and jobs for bureaucrats who did not actually have to deal with, talk, or touch the unwashed. The rest is the sad history of poverty in the 20th century.

I’ve seen a couple articles lately about the recurring attraction people have for socialism. And such articles usually contain big, complicated formulas.

But it’s no more complicated than what Dennis Prager explains: People will take something for nothing if given half a chance. It is deeply embedded in nearly all people to take “free stuff” if they can avoid working for it.

Period. And add onto the top the politicians who purchase various constituencies by offering “free stuff,” but it all feeds off that basic dynamic.

Very very rare is the individual with the sense of honor who will not accept “free stuff,” no matter how cleverly this stuff is packaged…perhaps as a “right,” for example. Or as “social justice.” Or as an earned “benefit” such as Social Security (which no one has actually earned…it’s a tax, stealing from Young Peter to pay for Elder Paul).

Wow! I was concerned that your associatio0ns would spiral you all out into space, but somehow, after that voluminous mountain of phenomenal prose about the magical tropical tributary, you gentleman made it all the way back to the core issue, which lies veiled behind the popularly promoted issue, which is of course the broken black family.

Let me pay penance of some kind, David. I have sinned. I was flipping through the channels a little while ago hoping to find a baseball game. What I found instead was an NFL game. I must have spent a full 3 seconds watching it but I feel so dirty.

Do I say a dozen “Hail Marys” or what? But that’s kind of football-ish. It probably ought to be something else.

Vin Scully, the retiring Dodgers broadcaster who was doing their games before I was born, said at an appearance last night that he will never watch the NFL again. He had announced NFL games for several years a few decades back, and continued to enjoy and watch their Sunday games. Now he won’t due to his respect for those who wear the uniform.

Depending on who one reads, NFL viewership is down 15-20% over the last two years. It also appears that many teams are not filling up their stadiums like they used to.

I read somewhere that the number of people watching the Cowboys in the DFW area dropped 20-30% the game after Jerry took a knee with his team before the national anthem was played. Typical Jerry trying to sit on the fence, but Texans generally don’t like such things and that is why Jerry came out the next week saying if a player doesn’t stand for the anthem, he doesn’t play. Money talks.

Hey, do you realize what exactly they’re protesting? You should read up on Kaepernick and how he decided to kneel for the anthem. I think if you listen to what these players are saying, you’ll see that they aren’t trying to diss America. A lot of them have a pretty specific reason for kneeling.

“It baffles me that our protest is still being misconstrued as disrespectful to the country, flag and military personnel. ”
Mr. Parker, it baffles me how their protest can be seen as anything other than disrespecting the flag and all those that fight to keep this country safe and free. Someone can kill somebody and say, that they can’t understand why their action was misconstrued as disrespectful, but does that make their actions any less disrespectful to the one they killed, or the rest of society at large?
If I piss on the flag, my reliving myself has nothing to do with the country, or those that serve, but it sure as hell would be disrespectful. They start off with the premise that police brutality is aimed at “people of color”, well that premise is B.S. Sure there are bad cops, there are bad everything, but that is not what this is about. These are whiners, pure and simple. If there were no police brutality tomorrow, they would find something new to bitch about.
Why not try to fix the real problem, the lack of fathers in the home. The Democrat party wanted to wipe out the black race in America by getting rid of the black father, well LBJ succeeded for the most part and now, his efforts have spilled over to almost every other race in this country. If it were true, and it is not, that black criminals were more likely to get killed by cops, then maybe they would have a point. But it is more likely for the cops to kill a white criminal than a black one, the problem is that the truth does not fit the leftist media’s narrative, so that is not what you hear. Don’t believe me, check with the FBI’s crime stats, the media could, but they won’t.

Note that in addition to their ignorant posturing on police brutality (an ignorance shared by many), one must note that Kaepernick was militantly anti-police and anti-American. He has every right to hate his country — and we have every right to hate him back.

One should also note that the asshole Kaepernick could have chosen to make his protest known at another time in some other arena, but he decided to protest during a football game while the national anthem was being played.

There may be people so misinformed and/or propagandized that they really have no idea there is a de facto “hate America first” movement out there, particular among large segments of the black population. Indeed, as Pat said, if the issues wasn’t suppose police brutality, it would be something else because this is about black separatism, plain and simple.

But if all you do is watch Rachel Maddow or NBC, you’re going to be dumb as an ox in regards to understanding the real issues here. I didn’t think it was a good idea when the Democrat South adopted and enforced the idea of “separate, but equal.” But now we have many blacks doing it. They want to be separate. They either want no white people or white cops in their neighbors or they want us to leave altogether.

This isn’t hyperbole. This is the root of it. This is why guys such as Kaepernick can never be satisfied. They could have held press conferences every day of the week. They could have returned to their neighborhoods and tried to fix things. They could have gone to the media — the national media or just the media in the neighborhoods suffering from gang violence, drugs, single-parent families, and bad schools — and tried to get their story out.

But what they did was wipe their ass on the flag. And this is because they hate white people and America. They think we are to blame for the dysfunction in their own culture.

And to the extent anyone besides individual people are to blame it would be the Democrat politicians who have corrupted them with welfare and other social engineering which has created a Frankensteins’s monster who ought to be targeted. By all means, next time a Democrat speaks somewhere, take a knee. Next time the Democrats hold a convention, take a knee.

While channel-surfing this afternoon, I came upon a commercial which showed a number of black NFL players saying how much they loved and appreciated the USA. I had to laugh out loud. Clearly, the NFL is clearly getting worried about its image with the American public. More dishonesty from a Goodell and Co. which they think us suckers will eat up. Perhaps they don’t realize that unless one happens to be checking what is on TV at the time, one will not see this commercial, i.e. those who no longer watch the NFL will not see this bit of smarmy hypocrisy.

In my case, it only makes me more determined not to watch this rubbish.

I read somewhere that not only are the football games taking a big hit, but that the pre, mid and post game shows dealing with the NFL are in even worse shape.

Be fair. Not every NFL player disses his country; most probably don’t. So those particular players may well be sincere in their expressed sentiment. It doesn’t make up for all the America-haters among them. That barrel may be mostly good apples, but it has too many bad ones to be worth sampling.

How am I unfair? This was an add put out by the NFL in a very belated response to a situation which has been festering for a year and a half. Only now do the idiots realize the seriousness of the situation thus only now do they come out with a smarmy add.

Other football players have already come out on their own saying that players shouldn’t kneel during the national anthem. Those individuals are due respect, but in no way is the NFL due such respect or consideration. The NFL is only trying to cover its ass. Same as the way some “conservatives” cover their asses by wearing a flag pin, as Brad described in his response to Gibblet on another string. Actions speak louder than words.

Yes, I get that seeing this disingenuous propaganda makes me dislike them even more.

When someone talks honestly about what the real problems are, then they’ll get an ear. But trying to blame me (that is, normal Americans) for the social dysfunction of large parts of the black community is not the way to get my ear.